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A message from Pamoja Solutions President, Steve Solomon
It’s an established fact that the only constant is change. The Board of Directors for Pamoja Solutions are both pleased and grateful that the changes we’ve seen over the past two years have been very positive. We are quite fortunate to have two new partners in DRC. Father Georges Kalenga and Father Ivo Segadaes have both been very generous with their valuable time and have shown their dedication to helping us to help the people of Katebi. The village school Pamoja helped build is open to the children of the village and we have been able to put money aside to pay the teacher for the remainder of this year. The children of Katebi will gain much from the lessons provided and therefore they will help ensure a secure, fruitful future for themselves and their community. Pamoja is currently engaged in finding a commercial-grade oil press. Using the land given to Pamoja some years ago, women grow peanuts and sunflowers which can be used to make cooking oil for local use with a surplus which can be sold in the nearby city of Kolwezi. This will bring much-needed funds into the village economy and promote self-sufficiency by allowing people in Katebi to pay a small fee for the school. By paying for this service, people can take ownership of it. This is a vastly better means for building strong communities than the outdated model of simply handing over charity donations. Our partners in DRC are very enthusiastic supporters of this project. The one constant and unchanging reality is that challenges remain. Deforestation continues to be a major issue. People in much of DRC have been cooking with charcoal for generations with the inevitable loss of forested land. An important benefit of the oil press would be that peanut shells can be compressed into pellets which can be burned as fuel, thereby reducing the need for charcoal. Alternatively, these pellets can be fed to livestock, but reducing the use of charcoal is the more immediate need. Pamoja hopes eventually to be able to promote a reforestation project. The peanut and sunflower oil needs to be taken into Kolwezi to be sold, requiring a vehicle. However we have to prioritize our needs, and keeping the school running and purchasing the oil press are essential and will be funded ahead of a vehicle. It’s our goal to be able to provide a vehicle in the near future. To our supporters here in Canada, we thank you most sincerely for your ongoing interest in our efforts on behalf of Katanga and its people. We’re confident that with our supporters in various parts of Canada and our partners in DRC, we will continue to help Katanga’s population to help themselves.
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Confessions of a long-time NGO Volunteer by Nancy Jackson, Board Member
Until I began working with an NGO based in a major North American city my fundraising experience was limited to the two local models that prevailed in the poor rural area of the USA where I was living. The first one I called the Sunday Morning Model because it was based on regular church attendance and a strong sense of obligation: You’re going to pray that “God’s will be done on earth as in heaven”? OK, here’s the collection plate. The basic message could be couched in gentler terms or with considerable rigor, but it was simple and clear. And whatever its shortcomings, it worked, one of its chief advantages being its remarkable financial transparency. Whether or not the congregation lived up to its daunting spiritual mandate, regular financial meetings, sometimes long, tedious and contentious, meant that the books were open to all congregants. Then there was the Saturday Night Model, an ad hoc event sponsored by the local bikers and/or the nearest fire hall. These “Beef ‘n Beers” were usually held in response to a local tragedy: a family confronted with an illness, an accident, or a fire. Although a few notices might be posted at the local convenience stores, publicity was mostly word-of-mouth thanks to the very effective rural grapevine. Beef ‘n Beers were, in fact, just keggers with even more meat, booze, smoke and aggressively awful music than their youthful counterparts. They were wildly popular and successful, with many of thousands of dollars being raised in a single evening. Transparency was not a problem because there was none. Many of the attendees had only hazy memories of what had happened on the night. The families who benefited from the event were understandably stunned with gratitude. The finances of the local fire halls were always conducted in masonic secrecy and no one — but no one — was going to ask the bikers anything about money. |
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